ALWAYS GREAT TO HEAR FROM HANK

Thanks to Neil for these great Hank quotes about the state of the Yankee pitching staff...

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now," Steinbrenner told the New York Times. "There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."

"The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever," Steinbrenner told the newspaper. "I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don't rush him."

"I think once Hughes and Kennedy get plenty of starts and get Joba back, and with [Chien-Ming] Wang and [Andy] Pettitte, we will be fine," Steinbrenner told The Times.

"[Mussina] just needs to learn how to pitch like [45-year-old Phillies pitcher] Jamie Moyer,"

In the offseason, if you remember, Hank was all for acquiring two-time Cy Young award winner Johan Santana, but we all know how that turned out.

"The starting rotation is not what I would have chosen at the beginning of the year, but that is not a big news flash to anyone,"

:-)

According to the AP:

Congress asked the Justice Department on Wednesday to investigate whether Roger Clemens made false statements to a House committee.

The chairman and ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said they sent a letter to Justice.

"We believe that his testimony in a sworn deposition on Feb. 5, 2008, and at a hearing on Feb. 13, 2008, that he never used anabolic steroids or human growth hormone, warrants further investigation," committee chairman Henry Waxman and ranking Republican Tom Davis wrote. "That testimony is directly contradicted by the sworn testimony of Brian McNamee, who testified that he personally injected Mr. Clemens with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.

"Mr. Clemens's testimony is also contradicted by the sworn deposition testimony and affidavit submitted to the committee by Andrew Pettitte, a former teammate of Mr. Clemens, whose testimony and affidavit reported that Mr. Clemens had admitted to him in 1999 or 2000 that he had taken human growth hormone."

IS CLEMENS GOING TO CALL PETTITTE A LIAR?

According to ESPN:

Andy Pettitte's affidavit helps to support Brian McNamee's version of events that the former trainer gave Roger Clemens steroids and HGH, Rep. Tom Davis told Newsday.

Although Pettitte won't testify at Wednesday's hearings, the left-hander's affidavit will be presented to Clemens at the hearing and will be part of the public record, the newspaper reported.

Asked whether Pettitte's desire to skip the hearing was a sign that his testimony was incriminating to Clemens, Hardin said, "it would be a huge mistake to assume that."

Sources told Quinn that Pettitte was not a good witness when he appeared before congressional lawyers during a sworn deposition on Monday. Pettitte often contradicted himself, the sources said, so the committee agreed to his request not to appear before the committee.

Lawyers familiar with the hearings would not say if Pettitte implicated Clemens as a steroids user in his testimony. However, they said that Pettitte's testimony didn't fully jibe with Clemens' versions of events.


IN MY EYES PETTITTE IS A GOOD GUY. HE PROBABLY TRIED TO SHEILD ROGER THE DODGER FROM THIS AS MUCH AS HE COULD, BUT WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE ANDY ISN'T GOING TO LIE TO SAVE CLEMENS' ASS, NOR SHOULD HE.

CLEMENS IS GOING TO TO BE GIVEN ANDY'S TESTAMONY AND HAVE TO SAY, "HE'S WRONG" OR "HE MISUNDERSTOOD" OR "HE'S NOT TALKING ABOUT HGH ETC." BASICALLY CALLING ANDY DUMB...WHAT A SHAME, BUT THROUGHOUT HIS PUBLIC LIFE CLEMENS HAS SHOWN HIMSELF TO BE CLASSLESS AND WHY WOULD THIS BE ANY DIFFERENT?

AT SOME POINT PETTITTE IS GOING TO HAVE TO ADDRESS THIS PUBLICLY AND HE NEEDS TO STOP HIDING BEHIND HIS "FRIEND" WHO WILL THROW HIM UNDER THE BUS THE FIRST CHANCE HE GETS.

Roger Clemens meet and greet with congress

First off let me start this by saying no one wants to see Roger Clemens embarrassed and sent home with his tail between his legs, more than I do. His arrogance and deplorable behavior through out the last 10 years or so disgust and enrage me. The way he handled the Mike Piazza incidents is an absolute disgrace, and his phony love of Babe Ruth (who I think is the greatest player of all time) is ridiculous. So needless to say there is nothing objective about this post. If you're a Clemens apologist, just stop reading now and move on to the next rant which I promise to make all giggly and fun.

What I don't get is, why would Brian McNamee, lie?

With all that said...(and now that Neil is the only one left reading) what is with this tour of congress? He is out there signing autographs, meeting and greeting with POTENTIAL JUDGES AND JURORS...I have never heard of or seen anything like this. The Mitchell investigators asked Clemens to stop by and speak to them before the Mitchell report was issued. Clemens refused. But now they can't get Clemens to stop meeting with people to tell his side of the story. There has to be no other option after Wednesday, when he swears on a stack of bibles that he is clean, that the Justice Department must open a criminal investigation into Roger Clemens' denials.

Look at that picture above, fake hair color, check, fake tan, check, fake boobs, check, fake husband, check, FAKE BODIES DUE TO MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF STEROIDS AND HGH, check. Again tell me why I'm supposed to believe he is telling the truth? Is it because he was a Yankee for 3 years...if he pitched his whole career for the Red Sox and won 2 World Series and 350 something games would anyone in NY be giving him the benefit of the doubt? Cumon...

Now on the other hand Brian McNamee has produced the "smoking gun" against Roger Clemens....except, to me, it proves nothing. All I have to do is look at a 45 year old man who is twice the size as he was 10 years ago (same as Barry Bonds) and I see him throwing harder and pitching better than he did when he was in his prime, and I see everything I need to see. Plus the louder and harder he yells to say he's telling the truth, shows me he's just trying a little to hard to make you believe that just because he "worked his rear end off" he deserves to have us believe him. And this isn't because he's a Yankee, because to me he isn't a Yankee, he was a jerk with the Blue Jays, and an idiot with the Astros.

Speaking of idiots, it's great to see that good ole' Rog hired an attorney who is as big a clown as he is. Rusty Hardin says of the IRS investigator who plans to attend Wednesday's hearing: "If he ever messes with Roger, Roger will eat his lunch." Nice, real smart, threaten the guy from the government with endless resources...maybe Hardin is the smart one after all, the more work he has to do for Roger, the more hours Hardin can bill Clemens for.
How great would it be if a sex tape would come out with Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens’s wife. OK sorry I couldn't resist...I'm just trying to get some more google hits. Brittney Spears, Lindsy Lohan.

On Wednesday, Roger and McNamee's testimony is meaningless, but Pettitte's is not. We don't know what Pettitte told them last Monday or what he will say at Wednesday's hearings. The speculation in Washington is he backed up Brian McNamee's story more than Clemens' story. Pettitte has told people around the Yankees that he simply told the truth (would we expect anything less from a quality guy like Andy?).
But, If Pettitte says Wednesday that he and Clemens had conversations about human growth hormone and Clemens admitted using it, what will Clemens do then? Attack Pettitte's credibility? You are damn right Clemens would, and then lets see all the Yankee apologist line up and pick a side in this one... I tend to think Roger's fan base will diminish pretty quickly.

There is only one question I want to hear the answer to, and only one guy I want to here answer it:

Mr. Pettitte, did you have conversations with Roger Clemens about HGH and did Roger admit to you he used it? The answer to that one should be way better than the Jeter sex tape!